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Legislative Action Center

News You Can Use:

Posting on the Pennsylvania Bulletin the Proposed Regulation #16A-4711 (IRRC #2926): "Qualifications for Licensure” from the State Registration Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists.

If you have any questions regarding the regulatory review process, the Independent Regulatory Review Commission website (http://www.irrc.state.pa.us/) can be helpful in providing you with this information.

One of the main findings you will note in this report is that after considering inflation, Pennsylvania's gas tax rate (including the Oil Company Franchise Tax) is already 3.5 cents lower today than it was five years ago when the tax was last raised (when OCFT reached its cap). According to the report, if efforts were made to update the gas tax rate to offset those five years of cost growth, state transportation revenues would be an additional $232 million higher per year. That is revenue lost simply due to the diminishing buying power of the current fixed, un-adjusted gas tax rate.

As you will further note, the report shows that states levying a fixed-rate tax (such as Pennsylvania) have performed far worse on average than states that adjust their tax alongside gas prices or inflation. This helps make the case for lifting the cap on the Oil Company Franchise Tax, and returning Pennsylvania to the group of 14 states levying a more sustainable "variable-rate” tax.

As you continue to speak to the Governor, legislators, chambers, civic groups and your neighbors, here is yet another piece to support our cause for new revenue.

For your reading pleasure, I have attached a link to the Building a Better Gas Taxreport.

President Barack Obama has signed the 3% Withholding Repeal Bill. As you know, this was a long-sought effort led by ACEC National to repeal Section 511 of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, which mandated that federal, state and local governments withhold three percent from payments to engineering firms and other contractors for goods and services. The law (which would have taken effect in 2012) was intended to act as a tax enforcement mechanism and would have encompassed all payments for products and services contracted by federal and state governments, as well as local governments that have annual expenditures that exceeded $100 million.
This is a big victory for our industry!